By Cathy Chalack / CWHBA (President of the Alberta chapter)
Photography: Cathy Crang, Kate Crang-Semadeni

Based north of Calgary in rural Red Deer County, CWHBA celebrates the success of Beda Wachter, of Wachter Horses (WH), with their home-raised Canadian Warmbloods. Swiss by birth, Beda and his Canadian partner, Lynne Stephenson are Grand Prix showjumping riders who have forged their success into a business operation and state-of-the-art facility.

In 2021, their own WH Coconut carried their student, 13-year-old Nyomi Yzerman of Blackfalds AB, to two clear rounds and individual sixth place at the the North American Young Rider Championships in Traverse, Michigan, as well as placing fourth in the team event.
The beautiful grey mare ‘Coconut’ is by Carthago Sun III (Carthago x Schampus xx), Beda Wachter’s own 1m60 World Cup ride, and out of Ciris (Charmeur), also the dam of Grand Prix jumpers WH Campari (Jennifer Kallam/USA) and WH Corona (Carla Diewart/CAN ). Coconut has a long list of wins at Grand Prix and was a force when ridden by Beda’s partner Lynne Stephenson. The mare is now with young Nyomi and they are becoming a trailblazing partnership in showjumping.
Interestingly, Beda sold Coconut as a three-year-old to the USA and then bought her back while she was competing at 1m20. Coconut carried Lynne to the FEI World Cup in Las Vegas, became champion at the Brandon Winter Fair, and placed second in the GP of Colorado, to name a few highlights. The mare is an ‘Elite Ambassador’ for the Alberta Chapter of CWHBA. Nyomi and Coconut took some time to develop a partnership after being sold under the agreement that she remain in training at Wachter Horses, so we will watch for this sizzling pair to con-tinue their win-ning ways in the future.
Turning to WH Luciano (Leader x Corrado II), the handsome dark CWHBA stallion has finished second in his first 1m40-1m45 class. Note: He does this with only one eye! His sire, Leader (Landadel x Grannus), was imported by Beda, but never competed due to an injury in-curred on the flight.
His dam is the famous Cas-carina (Corrado II x Romino), also imported by Beda, whom he started and rode internationally to World Cup level. The mare has produced well and they have two extra special fillies to look forward to: One by Maddy Riddle's Salvatore, and the other by Tracey Epp’s Chicago. Luciano is an independent and calm stallion with a brave and confident approach to his jumps. His oldest foals are now four years old, so Beda and Lynne are looking forward to their development.
In spite of this success at the higher levels, Beda is most proud of his homebreds by Carthago Sun III and Leader that are owned and shown by his clients in the 1m15-1m20 jumpers.
Having an eye for talent is Beda's strength, as demonstrated by the mare WH Delilah (Boritas x Love Affair) whom he purchased and trained and who Lynne competed successfully up to 1m45 at competitions in Brandon and Colorado. He has since sent sent the mare to Europe to be ridden by Swiss international Pius Schwizer, and they are now competing on the Global Champions Tour, followed by a recent 1m50 win at Humlikon in Switzerland. According to Beda; “In North America it’s not so easy to develop top special horses – mainly due to cost – so I sent her to Europe,” although some of her offspring are, of course, still in his breeding program.
All in all Wachter Horses is another top Canadian breeding operation that is successfully breeding and showing horses at the highest levels of competition.